Biologic Roles of Estrogen Receptor-β and Insulin-Like Growth Factor-2 in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

Figure 8

High levels of IGF-2 occur in archival TNBC tumors as compared to ERα+ and ERα− breast cancers. Archival breast tissues from patients with ERα-positive (ER+, ), ERα-negative (ER−, ), and TNBC () breast cancer were evaluated for IGF-2 expression. Validated IHC staining methods were used to evaluate IGF-2 expression in tumor epithelium (a) and neighboring stroma (b). Scoring was done using an Allred-based criterion. (a) Significantly higher expression of IGF-2 is found in the epithelium of TNBC tumors as compared to ER+ () and ER− breast cancers (). (b) Compared to ER+ and ER− archival breast tumors, stromal tissue adjacent to TNBC tumors expressed significantly higher levels of IGF-2 than stromal tissue neighboring non-TNBCs ( and for ER+ and ER−, resp.). Error bars: SD.

(a)

(b)